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To: Graves
In the Church, we do not have the luxury of personal opinions on such matters as this. According to St. Photius the Great, the use of azymes is not a minor matter. No father prior to St. Photius that I know of said, "This is but a minor matter", or words to that effect.

First, I still cannot see how you can claim that Trullo was an Ecumenical Council. Beyond that, your interpretation that Canon 32 requires unleavened bread is a personal opinion, and one that is far fethced as far as I am concerned. You are reading into the canon something that it simply does not say.

With regard to Patriarch Photius, it seems to me that you are giving to him an infallibility that you are denying to the pope. Why should the decision of the Patriarch of Constantinople be held in higher regard than that of the pope.

That being said, however, it may come as a surprise to you but Photius never condemned the West for the use of unleavened bread. That was first done by Patriarch Michael I in 1053 when he closed the Latin churches in Constantinople. Thus for hundreds of years no one thought that it was a serious matter. The novelty was the condemnation of Patriarch Michael.

351 posted on 07/18/2005 8:55:54 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: Petrosius

"First, I still cannot see how you can claim that Trullo was an Ecumenical Council."
I accept it as Ecumenical because the Church does. The teaching of the Church is that the Council in Trullo was a continuation of the Fifth Council that dealt with matters left unfinished at the Fifth Ecumenical Council. All of the canons in Trullo were confirmed at the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

"You are reading into [Canon 32] something that it simply does not say." Yeh, me and the rest of the Church are "reading into".

"With regard to Patriarch Photius, it seems to me that you are giving to him an infallibility that you are denying to the pope." HOGWASH. I render to him the respect that all Orthodox Christians render to him. It's the Tradition that's
infallible, not St. Photius.

"Why should the decision of the Patriarch of Constantinople be held in higher regard than that of the pope." It's the Tradition that is held in higher regard. No pope and no ecumenical patriarch can override the Tradition. I have just as hard a time with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as I do with Pope Benedict XVI. You should hear what we say of the present EP. He is generally held in very low regard, so much so it mystifies us that Pope Benedict XVI bothers to talk with him at all. Another stinker is Patriarch Alexei II, called by some the Ghetto Orthodox Patriarch because of his past.

"That being said, however, it may come as a surprise to you but Photius never condemned the West for the use of unleavened bread."
I believe you may want to double check that statement.


353 posted on 07/18/2005 9:14:43 AM PDT by Graves (Orthodoxy or death!)
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